Campaign Aims to Lure Seals Back to Seal Beach

Although it’s been more than 40 years, Kris Lindstrom still lights up when he remembers family outings to see the seals at Seal Beach. If the time was right, dozens would be sunning themselves along the shoreline. But sometimes, patience was required.

“All you had to do was sit quietly on the beach and they would come,” Lindstrom said.

A glimpse of the playful seals that entertained beach goers and gave the community its name is now rare. In an effort to change that, the Sierra Club and the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce plan an unprecedented conservation project to reintroduce an entire marine ecosystem. The proposal’s success is far from certain. The cost has yet to be determined. It first requires the approval of state legislators and the California Coastal Commission. And, some critics say it’s too ambitious.

But supporters are confident that work could begin later this year, in part because Seal Beach city leaders, business owners and environmental activists support it.

“It draws attention to the fact that the name Seal Beach was rooted in a reality that no longer exists,” said Susan Jordan, board member of the League for Coastal Protection. “The reason it doesn’t exist anymore is because of the impact that development has had on habitat along that shoreline.”

A citywide “Save Our Seals” fund-raising campaign begins later this month. The plan follows a relatively simple theory, said Bruce Monroe, a Seal Beach businessman and Sierra Club member: Improve the wetlands and the rest will follow.

Planting kelp forests offshore and mangrove trees and sea grass in the wetlands areas in the Seal Beach National Wildlife Refuge within the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station are central to the proposal, Monroe said.

The sea grass beds and the mangrove trees’ root systems would attract the kinds of sea life that seals eat. Although a typical seal diet centers on sardines, smelt and anchovies, harbor seals and sea lions often venture into shallow water to dig for snails, worms, crabs and clams.

Some question whether the plan will work, and whether it’s worth the effort. Many commercial fishermen, for example, consider seals a nuisance. They also question whether there’s even a problem.

“Believe me, there’s no shortage of seals out there,” said Sky Stettler of Norm’s Big Fish and Tackle in Seal Beach. “It’s getting so that the seals follow the sport [fishing] boats like dogs. . . . They eat the fish right off the line.”

Lindstrom, an environmental planning consultant, wonders whether the plan can resolve such habitat problems as poor water quality and silt buildup due to area construction. But, he said, “I admire the effort.”

Conservationists acknowledge those concerns, and hope that the project leads to cleanup of the coastal waters off Seal Beach, which are among the most polluted in Orange County. Urban runoff through the nearby San Gabriel River channel, which is heavily polluted, causes several beach closings per year.

The Seal Beach proposal is part of an effort by the Sierra Club to seek federal protection for 20% of Southern California’s 860-mile coastline. Currently, only 1% of the waters have such protection.

“It’s not just about the cuddly mammals like the seals and the sea otters,” said Gordon LaBedz, president of the Sierra Club’s Angeles Chapter, which includes Orange County. “It’s not a pie-in-the-sky idea at all.”

Regardless of the outcome, the public discussion of the unusual project is helping the city take a closer look at such topics as water quality and protecting sea life.